Hey everyone,
So I originally purchased my 80 with a 4x4 labs non swing out bumper. It was a true non swing out, the tubes on the side protection went into the spindle holes.
I purchased the dual swing arms, 3 can carrier, and tire carrier all built by labs. I then had a local welding shop, weld the spindles on. It’s been about a year and a half since I added the swing arms.
The spindle weld on the tire carrier side partially cracked possibly due to weight of the tire, from there being a slight bit of play in the arms even when latched shut, and the slight angle in the spindles(see photo). It was re welded/ touched up and has been holding up great for a year now.
Is it worth removing the bumper, removing the welds and re welding it perfectly perpendicular/level?
Removing the bumper isn’t an easy task because PO welded 1/4 inch steel plates onto the frame rails where the labs bumper attaches to make it an extremely snug fit. Last time I removed the bumper, I removed all the bolts and the bumper didn’t budge at all.
Local welding shop is about 75 an hour if I remember correctly. I see about 2-3 hours of labor to cut, grind, re weld. Ideally I’ll have the shop fab up the tubes on both sides and weld them in. As the current tubes were cut off to open up the spindle holes.
Biggest issue is that I’m super ocd and the angle of the spindles borderline makes me lose sleep at night. Now if there is a structural integrity issue as well, then that would push me to re do the spindles ASAP.
So I originally purchased my 80 with a 4x4 labs non swing out bumper. It was a true non swing out, the tubes on the side protection went into the spindle holes.
I purchased the dual swing arms, 3 can carrier, and tire carrier all built by labs. I then had a local welding shop, weld the spindles on. It’s been about a year and a half since I added the swing arms.
The spindle weld on the tire carrier side partially cracked possibly due to weight of the tire, from there being a slight bit of play in the arms even when latched shut, and the slight angle in the spindles(see photo). It was re welded/ touched up and has been holding up great for a year now.
Is it worth removing the bumper, removing the welds and re welding it perfectly perpendicular/level?
Removing the bumper isn’t an easy task because PO welded 1/4 inch steel plates onto the frame rails where the labs bumper attaches to make it an extremely snug fit. Last time I removed the bumper, I removed all the bolts and the bumper didn’t budge at all.
Local welding shop is about 75 an hour if I remember correctly. I see about 2-3 hours of labor to cut, grind, re weld. Ideally I’ll have the shop fab up the tubes on both sides and weld them in. As the current tubes were cut off to open up the spindle holes.
Biggest issue is that I’m super ocd and the angle of the spindles borderline makes me lose sleep at night. Now if there is a structural integrity issue as well, then that would push me to re do the spindles ASAP.